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America Marks 22nd Anniversary of September 11th Attacks; Kim Jon-un Heads to Russia; Morocco Death Toll Rises; Cassandra Karinsky is Interviewed about the Moroccan Earthquake; Escaped Inmate Changes Appearance; Zeke Unger is Interviewed about the Manhunt in Pennsylvania. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 11, 2023 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[09:00:13]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan, alongside John Berman and Sara Sidner.

Today the nation marks the somber anniversary of the day America will never forget. The nation is commemorating 22 years since the attacks of September 11th.

Across the country, Americans are pausing to remember and reflect. It remains the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil. It's also an important moment to honor the nearly 3,000 lives lost on that day.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now what you're seeing is the names of the fallen being read out loud at the World Trade Center here in New York. We are just minutes away from a moment of silence at 9:03 a.m. Eastern, 17 minutes after the first plane struck, a second hijacked plane, Flight 175, it hit the south tower.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We will also be taking you live this morning to commemoration ceremonies at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. As for President Biden, he's observing the anniversary in Alaska at a military base in Anchorage as he travels back to Washington, D.C., from his trip in Asia.

Let's go now to CNN's Brynn Gingras, who is live standing by at the 9/11 Memorial Plaza.

Brynn.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Sara.

Yes, you know you guys said that moment of silence coming up at 9:03. I do want to mention that we don't even want our cameras on out of respect for what is happening behind us. So, that is why I'll get out of the way right at that 9:03.

But before then, let me give you a sense of where we are. We are right by the south reflective pool where the south World Trade Center tower once stood. And all morning long we have been seeing family members and service members coming to this area and placing those flags that you can see in the etched names of this memorial, as well as flowers. You can see there are family members who are sitting there.

And this space right now, Ground Zero, it is reserved only for family members who have this time to be on this hallowed ground and to remember those nearly 3,000 people, those lives that were lost.

As you guys mentioned, the names are continuing to be read of those people who we've lost. And it's just so heart wrenching to hear these people talk about the 22 years, the people that have been born since then, all those people that they remember and who they've loved as they call out those names of the people that they are missing.

One thing I want to note to you guys, as you listen to this throughout the morning, you'll see children reading out some of these names. And what they told me is that this is to signify that there are generations of people who weren't even alive when 9/11 happened, and this is a way to get those generations to remember about what happened here on -- at Ground Zero and across, of course, the world that was changed forever on that date. So that is something to keep an eye out for.

The ceremony is going to continue until about noon today. We know there are dignitaries here, including Vice President Kamala Harris and, of course, many New York City dignitaries, as well as the mayor. And then there are alt (ph) service members as well. We have the NYPD Honor Guard and the FDNY as well.

And we'll take that moment of silence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Darren Christopher Bohan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lawrence Francis Bolsseau.

BOLDUAN: A moment of silence there as we all took it together marking the moment the hijacked Flight 175 struck the south tower of the World Trade Center.

We're going to continue to follow and mark these moments of silence all throughout the show this morning.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, now we are going abroad.

This morning, the Kremlin is confirming Kim Jong-un is set to visit Russia in the coming days. And the North Korean leader appears to already be on his way there. We're told Kim left Pyongyang in an armored train. The visit comes just after hours - excuse me, days after U.S. officials warned the leaders could meet to discuss a deal for North Korea, to give Russia weapons that they can use in their war on Ukraine.

[09:05:09]

CNN's Paula Hancocks is following all of this for us. She joins us now from Seoul, South Korea, this morning.

Paula, what can you tell us about this upcoming meeting?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, at this point we know, and have confirmation from both the Russian and the North Korean side, that Kim Jong-un is going to be in Russia. We know that Vladimir Putin is already in Vladivostok, in the eastern part of the country, where he is expected to meet with Kim Jong-un. He's there for an eastern economic forum. We know that it will be in the coming days, according to the Kremlin. But beyond that we don't have a specific date that they are telling us.

What we do know is it is a meeting that neither Washington nor Seoul wants to go ahead. We have heard from U.S. officials, and it's been backed up by South Korean intelligence as well, that there is a belief that the two sides, the two countries, are moving closer towards an arms deal.

Now, we know that Russia is looking for ammunition. We know that they would like small arms. And this is something that North Korea has a vast production capability of.

And when it comes to what North Korea could get out of this deal, because everything is transactional and the relationships are transactional for Pyongyang, they could get, for example, satellite knowledge and technology from Russia. They have tried a couple of times in the past few months to put a military satellite up into space and have failed. They could also get nuclear submarine technology from Russia as well. So, clearly, both sides stand to gain militarily. And it is something that the U.S. and South Korea, Japan, allies in the region certainly don't want to see happen. U.S. officials have said that there would be repercussions.

Now, of course, there's a political angle to this as well. It is showing Kim Jong-un's political ambitions. He is pushing closer to Russia, a country that he was not particularly close to for much of his reign. In fact, he met Vladimir Putin for the first time and the last back in 2019. He has been far closer to China. But we have seen over recent months this relationship developing. The Russian defense minister, for example, back in July was invited to Pyongyang. The red carpet treatment was given to him. He saw a military parade. He was walked through an arms expo. And it really had all of North Korea's weapons capabilities on display. And that is of great concern to Washington.

Sara.

SIDNER: Certainly for the U.S. and its allies. For South Korea and those who are close, it is a disturbing, if you will, coupling.

We're looking at video from 2019 of the two leaders together. We will wait to see what happens during this upcoming meeting that has been announced.

Thank you so much, Paula Hancocks, for all your reporting. Appreciate it. John.

BERMAN: All right, CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is with us now.

Nic, Vladimir Putin skips the G-20, invites Kim Jong-un to come meet. What's the big takeaway here?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The war in Ukraine is going to take longer than perhaps originally anticipated.

Look, we know that -- we know that the war in Ukraine is costing Putin a lot of ammunition and a lot of troops. And in a war of attrition, he needs to restock on both. He's got his armament factories, some of them working 24/7 to produce artillery shells, which are absolutely vital for him in the fight to hold the Ukrainians back. It's mines and artillery shells that are doing the most damage on the front lines to Ukrainian troops.

And Kim Jong-un and North Korea uses similar types of weapons systems, similar caliber weapons. Indeed, they're interoperable Soviet era type weapons. So, they're connected by a railway network. North Korea, through Russia, all the way to the front lines in Ukraine. Putin if he can do this deal with Kim Jong-un, can potentially get the type of armaments he needs to keep the fight going, stop him losing ground in the places that he's losing ground. It's an existential threat for him.

So, there's a huge amount at stake and, hence, therefore, the concern about the technologies he might give up in order to acquire the weapons for this battlefield.

BERMAN: It does say something that at this stage of the war his invasion of Ukraine Vladimir Putin needs North Korea to achieve any kind of sustained effort there.

Nic Robertson, great to see you. Thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And in Morocco the death toll now stands at nearly 2,500 people killed. The magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck and it is the strongest earthquake to hit the country in more than 120 years. Rescuers are racing now against time to find survivors still under the rubble. We're showing video of one person who was pulled out in a stretcher, they say pulled out alive, in one of the hardest hit areas located high in Moracco's Atlas Mountains.

[09:10:01]

The mountain range is the epicenter of where the earthquake hit. Just about 45 miles from Marrakech.

CNN's Sam Kiley is there. He's on the ground. He's been talking to survivors and seeing all of this firsthand.

Sam, what is the very latest that you're seeing?

SAM KILEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the royal Moroccan armed forces have now established here in Asni, a -- I have to say, a pretty impressive field hospital. They are specialists with interventions in the past (ph), in Congo, in Jordan, in disasters around the world. None of them ever expected really to end up being deployed in a disaster of this scale in their own country. But that's exactly what's going on.

There's even a gynecological unit here because there are people that are coming in from very long distances, a lot of them cut off completely, unable to use any kind of vehicular transport. So they're coming down on foot or using donkeys and other traditional means of transport because the roads have been blocked by this massive earthquake.

Now, the death toll is sitting at about 2,500, similar number of severely injured. But that death toll -- and we really don't know one way or the other whether it will go shooting up because the Moroccan authorities are still trying to get to the more remote areas using helicopters, again, mostly military helicopters, in order to establish what the situation is in these very much more remote areas of the Atlas Mountains.

But I've been speaking here to the professor who's also a colonel in charge of this, and he said it's a very, very emotional process for all of them, especially the emergency workers here, because they never expected to have to do this kind of thing in their own country. But also the psychological effects of this earthquake, he's very concerned there are going to be felt -- those aftershocks are going to be felt in this country long after the immediate emergency response is over, Kate.

But that emergency response now is getting underway. It is in the last few hours, if you like, of the sort of 72-hour window of opportunity to -- where there -- hope can be really vested in trying to get people out when they're trapped underground. After that it tends to become a body retrieval process. And that is also going to take some time.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and we're just -- alongside - in the next - next box over we were just looking at the video. Just hand by hand, rock by rock, brick by brick is some of the rescue efforts to try to find people under these pancaked structures.

Sam, thank you so much for being there. We're going to check back in with Sam throughout the show.

Sara.

SIDNER: And joining us now is an Australian restaurant owner who has lived in Morocco for 18 years and is in Marrakech this morning.

Cassandra Karinsky, thank you so much for joining us.

First, can you tell us a little bit about what things look like near you at this hour?

CASSANDRA KARINSKY, RESTAURANT OWNER: I live in an area of town called Beliz (ph). It's a new city. They call it the new city. Because we have the new city and the old city. In this area where I live and where my restaurant is, everything is pretty much running as normal. We've had very mild sort of cosmetic things to deal with. A few cracks here. But everything is pretty - is good standing.

We've got issue in Medina (ph) with a few houses coming down. But, overall, Marrakech is still standing pretty solid. The real issue is up in the rural areas and the communities in the mountains. So, that's where the hardest hit, the poor people up there, which is being - and those mud brick homes have just crumbled.

SIDNER: Yes, we're seeing some of the images of that. And in the Atlas Mountains there is just devastation in so many areas.

I do want you, if you wouldn't mind, to describe the experience that you and your guests at the restaurant and your employees experienced when this happened.

KARINSKY: It's really hard. I mean it was about, you know, as you all know, it was after 11:00 in the evening and we were winding down from a very busy dinner service and we still were quite full. We had about 60 clients get in the restaurant. I felt a vibration, a very strong -- I thought it was only something going -- happening in the kitchen with gas. So, like I thought it was going to be like an explosion or something. I wasn't sure. But then it just got more intense, the vibration and the shaking. And everyone started screaming.

A couple of my staff opened up our extra-large doors at the front of the restaurant. Everyone ran down. And we sort of ran down to the corner where there was load-bearing walls and not high buildings just to keep somewhat protected in case something did collapse.

But, yes, it was a pretty scary moment. It was - it was very, very powerful. I've never felt anything like it. So, our staff -- the restaurant's still intact, as I said, and the majority of their families are all OK. So - but it's, again, the mountains which are really suffering.

SIDNER: Yes. And speaking of which, there in the Atlas Mountains, you know, that's the hardest hit area. What - what can people do to help? And I understand that you and those you know there, the Moroccans there, are really trying to do a lot of this on their own, to try and get to people as soon as they can since they are there in country.

[09:15:03]

KARINSKY: Yes, I mean, I went up with a friend yesterday. We took a carload, a big four-wheel drive load of water and food goods and hygiene goods. We made our way to a town that we said - that people were saying that we wouldn't be able to get to. But we were about a kilometer out of it. It was about a two hour drive from Marrakech. It was very scary going along the roads because a lot of debris, big rocks on the road. They have nothing up there. It's a little town called Immi (ph), I'm going to (INAUDIBLE), Imminatala (ph). And we weren't allowed in for the next kilometer because there was too many dead - to many bodies they were trying to pull out.

I think what we're trying to do at the restaurant, we've got a GoFundMe page for Plus 61. And I think we're - we're all continuing to do food and immediate aid. Food, medical supplies. But we're looking - we're trying to look at the long-term effects of this. And we're trying to work with a company, Better Shelter, which was collaborating with Ikea for the refugee flat pack shelter homes. We're trying to get those down here, which are more sustainable. There's solar paneling on the roofs. We're trying to raise money to get those into the country as fast as possible to get people a more of a solid, grounded place to live and be more protected from the elements that are coming soon with the winter climate.

SIDNER: Yes. Thank you so much for doing that, Cassandra Karinsky. I think when you look at these pictures, you make a really good point, this could be a very long-term recovery and rebuilding is going to take a very long time, just looking at the devastation there. It's so - so hard to watch.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you coming on this morning. And good luck to you and your staff and family.

John.

BERMAN: Major new developments in the search for a convicted killer in Pennsylvania. Police say he's changed his appearance. He also stole, then ditched, a van.

New Mexico's governor suspends the right to carry guns in public for 30 days after the deaths of young children.

And then 50 students in one biology class, crippling teacher shortages across the nation, how some districts are finding solutions.

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[09:21:16]

BOLDUAN: Cleanshaven and outside the perimeter. Some pretty dramatic developments in the search for the escaped convicted killer in Pennsylvania. Police put out these new images you see right here. These come from a Ring camera of Danelo Cavalcante, noting that he does look different now from the mugshot you'd seen before, cleanshaven specifically.

Police also say that they believe he has slipped through their perimeter as he was spotted 20 miles from where they were looking. They say he managed to steal a van and then dump that van as well.

CNN's Danny Freeman joins us now from Chester County, Pennsylvania. He's got the very latest on this.

Danny, what happened this weekend? Where do things stand right now? DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, just a tremendous amount

of developments over the past 48 hours. And the reality is, this weekend was a major setback for the manhunt for Danelo Cavalcante. But to understand exactly why, I've got to bring you back to where we were Friday and Saturday.

Remember, just a few miles away from where we are at the command center, pretty much the whole area was shut down. Police said it was the largest police presence they had had in the manhunt at the time. And we saw troopers searching the backs of cars, searching trunks of basically every car that was coming near the perimeter. That was the environment that Cavalcante was able to slip away from.

So, here's what we just learned yesterday. Basically sometime on Saturday most likely Cavalcante slipped that perimeter. He stole a van from a nearby dairy farm. And, Kate, that van he was able to take because the keys were left inside of the van.

He then drove north of 20 miles north of the area to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, and that's where he was caught on camera because he was trying to enlist the help of a former associate of his and that Ring camera you saw, that's where we saw the new images of Cavalcante, now clean shaven, wearing a green hoodie, different from the initial photos from trail cameras in the woods that we had seen earlier last week.

Then on Sunday morning police found that dairy van. It was abandoned. Cavalcante nowhere to be seen.

But, Kate, I want you to take a listen to an interview that one of our CNN affiliates did with the former roommate of Cavalcante from not that long ago. Take a listen to his perspective.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCO, FORMER ROOMMATE OF ESCAPED PENNSYLVANIA INMATE: I had no idea he could do something like this. He - like I said, he was someone super shy, like really quiet. He had -- he would drink his beers on the weekend, make barbecue and working a lot.

I just want him to be caught so I can sleep. I can go live my normal life. Everybody can feel safe again. And, yes, he has to pay for what he did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: That roommate, at this point, really just hoping that Cavalcante is caught.

Now, state police, they say that they, of course, wish that the escape of the perimeter had not happened and they acknowledge that no perimeter is 100 percent foolproof. But, Kate, again, we're day 12, multiple sightings, still no capture of Cavalcante.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Danny Freeman, thank you so much for being there.

John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, bounty hunter Zeke Unger.

Zeke, thank you for being with us.

Why was Cavalcante been able to keep a step ahead of authorities?

ZEKE UNGER, BOUNTY HUNTER: Well, it's normal fugitive behavior. I mean, these investigations can go on for months. He skipped the perimeter. It happens. There will be another incident coming up soon, the police will be able to set up another perimeter, law enforcement across the country right now, I'm sure, is getting hundreds of phone calls, the investigative services units, of sightings from the Canadian border to the Mexican border. It's about sorting them out so you're not chasing a red herring.

Although we do have good, technical information coming from Ring and other cameras so that they can ascertain if it's actually the fugitive or just a bogus call.

[09:25:05]

I believe that within a couple days he's going to need to get another vehicle, find shelter. He'll make a mistake. And I think we'll be back on the trail again. That's the way the fugitive game goes.

BERMAN: Look, the -- the old Wayne Gretzky saying is, you know, skate where the puck is going, not where it is.

UNGER: Right.

BERMAN: Why wouldn't authorities have already been checking with people that Cavalcante knew? That's where the Ring cameras have been capturing him, at houses of people who have been known associates of him.

UNGER: Well, I'm sure under, you know, the investigative services units are doing that. The public doesn't know about it. There's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that they're not giving to the public. I'm sure that more people are being spoken to than we know of.

This is a matter of waiting for the fugitive to create another scenario where we can get a new perimeter. I believe -- I'm going to throw down a bet, that this guy is caught by a citizen, either stealing a car, trying to get into a residence, take him down or take him out. This is what I think is going to happen in this investigation because the public is so hypervigilant.

BERMAN: How far away do you think he could possibly be at this point?

UNGER: You know, in the fugitive game we wish we had a crystal ball. We can't ascertain that, we really can't, because then you're chasing a red herring. What we really need to do is be patient. This is normal fugitive stuff, OK. He's going to reappear. We're going to set up a perimeter. We're going

to get him. It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow. But when the U.S. Marshals are on your butt, trust me, you're going to - you can run but you're going to get caught tired at some point and you're going to go back to jail, either in handcuffs or a body bag, but the U.S. Marshals and law enforcement across the country will apprehend this individual.

BERMAN: All right, Zeke Unger, appreciate you talking with us today. Thank you very much.

UNGER: Thanks.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, former President Donald Trump took his 2024 campaign to another intense rivalry on Saturday, the Iowa/Iowa State football game. We'll talk about that and the latest on the 2024 race, that's ahead.

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